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Yeah, it’s true. It’s the middle of winter, and an insanely stressful one at that. I have been stress-eating, too often, too much, and not on good foods. My belly poodgeth. My thighs doth stretch the fabric of my jeans. My back-fat appeareth over my bra strap.

So I’ve pulled out one of my old stop-snacking tricks: a crochet hook and a few balls of yarn. The thing is, along with stress-eating I also do a good bit of stress-sitting-like-a-vegetable-in-front-of-the-tv, and when I do that, I am especially prone to snacking mindlessly. So when I start crocheting in front of the tv, I am able to produce something useful, keep my hands busy, and have a reason to not want anything messy around my project. And even when I feel that urge to snack, this is where my innate procrastinator sense kicks in–I go, “Okay, I’ll finish this row and then I’ll go get some popcorn…okay, maybe this row. Or in a little while,” and usually the urge passes before I’ve gotten off my rear to do anything.

Now of course healthy self-discipline and a little more exercise (“I will treat my body well! Instead of snacking, I shall do 20 minutes of Zumba and then another half hour on the Wii Fit!”) would be preferable to using one’s innate laziness to justify sitting there some more…but hell, whatever works, right? Once spring comes, I usually gain a little more get up and go, but I’m one of those winter folks who gets the exact opposite of cabinfever–I would happily hibernate quietly in a little room under a quilt till the pussywillows come out and I can start my garden.

Anyway, check out my latest project! I had been wanting a hoodie-scarf (I’m told it’s called a “scoodie”–I think that’s just, um, weird.) for some time, and finally discovered how easy they are to make. (They keep heads and necks warm without messing up your hair; I’m all about that!)

First I crocheted just an ordinary scarf–about a foot wide and 6 feet long. I used two skeins of Lion Brand Homespun, with an N hook (this crochets up faster but also leaves a lot of holes–but my wrists always start hurting if I crochet with small hooks), in a fairly simple stitch pattern whose name I don’t know, but honestly what kind of stitch you use is irrelevant. Any crochet or knit pattern for a basic rectangular scarf will work. I did a fringe on the ends, but it wasn’t really necessary.

I folded it in half at the 3-foot point, and then single-crocheted the two halves together for about ten inches down one side, forming the hood. I turned it right-side out so the crochet-seam didn’t show, and bingo, I was done.

I really like it! And I think I want to make more…but out of warmer yarn, because this really isn’t warm enough for a Chicago winter.

Obviously, if what you want is just a scoodie, this could be easily just sewn out of fabric or fleece–check out some good instructions here. This could also be a good use for repurposed wool felt sweaters…but that won’t help with the snacking urge, unless you sew by hand or have the tv in your sewing room.